Post#8 » by lethalweapon3 » Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:54 am
To keep his team in the running for the Western Conference Playoffs, the star power forward is giving it everything he’s got, turning out All-Star-worthy numbers. He’s relying on some energetic youngsters, including a promising point guard, to support an array of veterans, some fighting through injuries to play, others in the 30-and-up club pulling as best they can despite their obvious shortcomings.
Together, they will need to keep building their synergy and sustain above-.500 play, to save a head coach who may or may not be on the hot seat. The coach toils under the discerning eye of deep-pocketed ownership, as well as the Hall of Famer-turned-executive who actively consults for the team.
Wait a second, which STAPLES Center tenant am I thinking about? One is dreaming of a near-future with Anthony Davis, and maybe Kyrie Irving, coming into the fold. The other team, the LA Clippers, just hopes to pull off wins on back-to-back nights as the Atlanta Hawks pay them a visit (10:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Prime Ticket in LA, NBATV elsewhere).
No longer fearful of being perceived as the Great Value Lakers, the Clippers have been undergoing a soft reset ever since moving on from Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford and JJ Redick in the summer of 2017. As commandeered by The Logo, team consultant Jerry West, Doc Rivers was kindly asked to relinquish his GM+PBO duties in favor of Michael Winger and Lawrence Frank, respectively.
The Clips signed Blake Griffin that summer to a five-year max deal and, just seven months later, allowed Detroit to pick up the tab. Last summer, DeAndre Jordan walked, too, after a kiss-and-make-up session with Mark Cuban in Dallas. That has led Doc Rivers to coach a whole new cast of characters, and so far, he has made the alchemy work (28-22), enough to stay two games ahead of the LeBron-less Lakers in the race for the NBA West’s final playoff spot.
Attached in 2017’s Crawford trade-and-buyout deal to Atlanta was a first-rounder from Houston (via the CP3 trade) which became the Hawks’ Omari Spellman. In the same deal the Clippers got Danilo Gallinari from Denver. Despite being notoriously oft-injured, Gallo (out again tonight, back spasms) has produced his best on-court numbers in quite a while (19.0 PPG, career-high 44.6 3FG% and 6.0 RPG).
As New Orleans is figuring, it’s hard to get a decent haul when you’re working the phones to deal away your headlining star, but LA has made out just fine in the Griffin deal. Avery Bradley and Tobias Harris joins Gallinari in Coach Doc’s starting lineups. The 2018 first-rounder they got in that deal, which became Miles Bridges, was flipped for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the rookie has comfortably found his way into the lineups as well.
SGA (46.2 FG%, 2.9 APG) slid into the starting point guard spot held by the wayward-shooting Patrick Beverley (from 2017’s CP3 deal, which also brought Lou Williams back to town) right after the Clippers’ 127-119 win in Atlanta on November 19. With Gallinari having been out the past few games, Bev is back with the first unit, offering up a seal-tight defensive backcourt unit that takes a lot of pressure off frontcourt mates Harris and 2018 summer trade acquisition Marcin Gortat.
Another throw-in from the Griffin deal was the once-underutilized giant Boban Marjanovic. Boban shares time with LouWill (full disclosure: half of his All-Star fan votes was me ballot-stuffing), Mike Scott (6-for-12 3FGs @ ATL on Nov. 19), and jumping-jack free agent pickup Montrezl Harrell (career-high 15.7 PPG, 63.1 2FG%, 6th in NBA; 15-for-18 FTs plus 5 steals @ ATL) to produce one of the most fun and distinctive second-units in the league. LA reserves score an NBA-high 51.1 PPG (2nd-place Brooklyn only scores 47.6), dishing out a league-high 10.8 APG while their 19.5 RPG is currently behind only the Nets.
Leading the way for the whole team is Harris, who is threatening to be at least an injury replacement among the Western Conference’s All-Star reserves. For Harris, just the latest former Orlando Magic seedling to bloom elsewhere, his career-best averages and percentages run across the board (21.1 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 2.5 APG, 50.1 FG%, 43.2 3FG%, 88.5 FT%). His 24 points (4-for-8 3FGs) to help LA surge past Atlanta back a couple months ago (38-23 edge in the final quarter) aided him in clinching Player of the Month honors in the hyper-competitive Western Conference for October/November.
Having soundly defeated the Kings here yesterday afternoon, by a 122-108 score (led by Harrell’s 25 points and 5 O-Rebs off the bench), another win tonight would allow the up-and-down Clippers to come out on top for the fourth consecutive game – they lost six of the prior seven contests.
That is good news for Rivers, for whom owner Steve Ballmer has been grateful for providing stability through all the moves and controversies the franchise has weathered. It is also good news for a fanbase that cannot stomach a full-blown tank job while the intown rival Lakers reach literally for the stars. But it is fair to wonder when the call might come from upstairs for Coach Doc and company to ease up on the gas. Having signed his contract extension last spring, Rivers appears a safe bet to carry into next season as the coaching commodore for the long-term roster restructuring.
The lottery-protected 2019 first-rounder that the Clippers dealt away in 2016 was inexplicably flipped by one of West’s former organizations, the Grizzlies, to greedy Danny Ainge in Boston. Rather than making the playoffs, if LA continues their Gentleman’s Tank through 2020, they’ll get a chance to pick up a couple more lottery picks for their rebuild, while the return for Boston would dissolve into a 2022 second-rounder. Sounds good to me.
Because they are playing so well right now, the decision on how to proceed into the latter half of this season may get taken out of Rivers’ hands. Harris, Gortat, Boban, Beverley and Scott’s salaries expire this summer, and Bradley’s contract includes a team option for 2019-20, making all of them tasty options for other NBA GMs. Someone may even be willing to take in the rest of Gallo’s $21.5 million payout for this season, so they can have his $22.5 million cap-clearing figure for next summer.
Clipper fans shouldn’t be too surprised to see more of SGA’s fellow 2018 first-rounder, shooting guard and G-League call-up Jerome Robinson, playing more minutes going forward, perhaps eating into the floortime for LouWill (2-for-16 FGs and 5 TOs yesterday vs. SAC, but 10 assists and 7-for-7 FTs off the bench).
It will be a similar deal for one of Taurean Prince’s fellow Baylor Bears, former Mav forward Johnathan Motley. He and guards Tyrone Wallace and Sindarius Thornwell will find themselves in the mix more later in the season, and possibly a lot tonight as the Clippers host on this second night of a back-to-back (0-2 on home back ends).
The Clippers have been able to keep opponents cool from long-distance (34.0 opponent 3FG%, 5th-lowest in NBA), but they get gashed on the offensive glass (11.5 opponent O-Rebs per-48, only the Lakers’ 11.7 is higher). And like the Trail Blazers, who outlasted the visiting Hawks on Saturday night, LA doesn’t force many turnovers (12.5 opponent TOs per-48, only Portland’s 12.3 are fewer).
With the Clippers’ passive approach to defense, the game may feel a bit like a carbon-copy of Saturday’s outcome for coach Lloyd Pierce’s crew. But his team ought to expect a renaissance after producing just nine O-Rebs (20.0 O-Reb%; Hawks are 3-13 when cranking out O-Reb percentages of 21.0 or less). Atlanta (15-33) can stay in this game, and even hold a lead late into it, if they keep their unforced errors to a minimum and if a rotation of John Collins, Alex Len and Spellman can punish the Clippers by catching caroms and finishing putbacks, while staying out of foul trouble.
For Darrell and the Clipper fans, it has been fun keeping an eye on the right-side-up standings since LeBron James has been on injured reserve, and it has been a thrill watching their No-Frills roster compete nearly every night. But keeping their lottery pick this summer, while possibly watching their arena mates wage an uphill battle as a lower-seed this spring, might prove to be the best of both worlds.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
"Dunking is better than sex." - Shawn Kemp, 1996
